Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Provides Free Geographic Resources To Communities Via the Web
January 4, 2000
University Park, Pa.—Finding the right geographic data about a community can lead down different and confusing paths. But thanks to the Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access, government planners, engineers and even school students can quickly locate free geographic data and images about Pennsylvania communities through the Internet.
Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access is the official State Geospatial Data clearinghouse for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. PASDA is a collaborative project of Penn State, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Geospatial Information Council.
"The ability to easily share data saves time, money and the need for additional resources," says Maurie Caitlin Kelly, coordinator for PASDA housed in Penn State’s Environmental Resources Research Institute. "County planners evaluating future land growth can download thousands of dollars’ worth of geographic data for free. Students can analyze digital aerial photographs from their classrooms via the Internet.
"Watershed conservation groups can review mapping census data, water quality and land use information," she says. "Engineering firms can find the appropriate data that helps determine environmental impact of construction projects."
Ken Giffhorn, chair of the Pennsylvania Geospatial Information Council, notes, "PASDA offers a new way for citizens to view their environment and state. We are excited about having PASDA as the official clearinghouse for the Commonwealth and with this partnership with Penn State and DEP.
Currently, visitors to the web site can download more than 10,550 data sets and 8,228 metadata records, which are descriptions of data and where to obtain the complete data. Sample data in the catalog includes aerial photographs for parts of Pennsylvania, listed by quadrangle; groundwater and drinking data from DEP; county elevation information; fish species database; and countywide floodplain coverages.
"This holistic approach involves not only Commonwealth agencies but also all producers of all Pennsylvania GIS data, resulting in a great resource for state, county and local governments. Citizens working together to protect and restore the environment can access a wealth of data available free and immediately, " he adds.
For example, Kelly notes, to obtain information about a county’s roads, one agency has maps showing the state and major county roads, but another agency might include the smaller township roads in their maps as well. ?
"This web site will save you time and money in phone calls tracking down the right information," she adds.
Aaron Mowry, the GIS manager for Cranberry Township located north of Pittsburgh, says downloading files and images from PASDA saves him a lot of time by eliminating the need to track down paper copies and digitize the data for the township’s computer system.
"The PennDOT road files from PASDA will help our public works department easily update its computer database of road and sign information. This will be a resource for township officials in planning and budgeting for road projects such as paving," says Mowry.
For Brandywine Conservancy, its efforts to work with municipal officials, developers and landowners to protect the watershed in Chester and Delaware Counties near Philadelphia require the use of maps to illustrate issues such as zoning changes or cluster housing development.
Liza Rupp, associate planner for the non-profit organization, says "I find this site to be very useful. Access to PASDA allows our staff to keep costs down and more efficiently use our resources."?The web site offers a searchable index but users do not have be specially trained to access the geospatial data. The staff provides access to free software programs and assistance to people in identifying and using the available data.
PASDA teams have been working over the past year with community organizations to educate citizens to understand and use the geospatial data. Also, the team is reaching out to local governments and non-governmental organizations in identifying, documenting and acquiring more data from their regions.
"The next step is the development of online mapping tools so people not familiar with GIS software and data manipulation, will be able to choose, map, and even perform data analysis on the Internet," Kelly notes. "Another goal is the creation of a set of standard statewide data."
The Deasy Geographics Laboratory, a unit of Penn State’s Department of Geography in College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, is responsible for the web interface design, data storage, development of data search and delivery capabilities, and of educational resources.
PASDA, which receives more than 160,000 hits per month, is a node on the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), a system of independent nodes linked to provide access to information. Not all the NSDI nodes provide access to the actual data and only a few have a comprehensive collection of data, like PASDA's, available for free.
"The response to PASDA has been overwhelmingly positive. " Our users are so thrilled to find the data they need and appreciate how much time and money they save using PASDA," Kelly says. "As more state, local, academic, and non-governmental organizations become involved the benefits of sharing data will increase exponentially. "
For more information about PASDA, visit the web site at http://www.pasda.psu.edu or contact the PASDA Team at pasda@psu.edu by email.
**vf**